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The Asian Century: Five trends position the Asia Pacific region as the world’s beacon of growth

by Chua Chor Hoon and Wilson Liew

We are at the cusp of the “Asian Century”, if Asia maintains its growth momentum and regains the dominant economic position it held before the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century. Asia Pacific today is home to 60 percent of the world’s population and accounts for nearly two-thirds of global economic growth. At a combined nominal GDP of US$25.5 trillion in 2015 — 42 percent higher than the United States’ and expected to grow about twice as fast over the next five years (5.4 percent to 5.7 percent per year, as projected by the International Monetary Fund) — the region’s collective economy is simply too big to ignore. We have identified five secular macro trends that will continue to shape and drive fundamental real estate demand and economic growth in Asia Pacific for a long time to come.

1. Urbanisation

Urbanisation is arguably the most important trend in favour of Asia. As of year-end 2015, Asia’s urbanisation rate was 48.2 pe